“Like all brides, I have a Pinterest problem,” said Ms Ryan, who will tie the knot next June.

“I am a huge foodie and into wine, so I want everyone to eat, drink and be merry. But I don’t want to say, ‘Oh, we can only afford to have 100 people.’ I want to be able to invite everyone we want.”

What’s one way Ms Ryan is managing her budget to make room for everyone at the table? She is one of a growing number of brides making the “something borrowed” her wedding gown.

In America, the wedding-dress rental business is booming: Rent the Runway opened a Las Vegas shop dedicated to bridal-gown rentals in December, and One Night Affair in Los Angeles rents some 1,500 dresses by appointment only. And now there’s the DC-based Borrowing Magnolia, a website launched a few weeks ago that offers easy access to gowns from high-end designers such as Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier and Jenny Packham.

“We’re seeing more of it,” says Meg Keene, author of A Practical Wedding and the editor-in-chief of a blog of the same name.

“It just makes much more sense to me to pay $US400 ($AU426) and get a dress that’s unique and a total knockout than spend the same amount and get not-even-the-best that David’s Bridal has to offer.”

“My fiancé is going to rent his tuxedo, so why shouldn’t I do the same thing?” says the bride-to-be, who is eyeing a $US1,250 ($AU1330) strapless Maggie Sottero number for the big day that rents for $US450 ($AU480) from Borrowing Magnolia.

A few days after the ceremony, she’ll pop the dress — and any nostalgia — into a package and mail it back to the folks at Borrowing Magnolia, where the dress will be passed on to another bride.

Ms Keene notes that some women were renting their wedding dresses even before these specialised businesses came into existence.

“Until recently, Rent the Runway didn’t offer wedding dresses, per se, but they offered a lot of really high-end dresses that you could use for wedding dresses,” she says.

“They were really the first place offering [dresses that were] nice and unique enough that there was a point in renting them. There really is no point in renting a wedding dress if it’s going to be super-generic-looking, because you can buy that dress for really cheap anyway.”

Borrowing Magnolia co-founders Ashley Steele, Steele’s sister Cali Brutz and friend Stephanie Olvey had worked in the wedding industry for close to a decade, and noticed that priorities have shifted when it comes to tying the knot.

“It is no longer an heirloom industry,” says Ms Steele. “You used to get one photo that you put in a gold frame, you’d dry your flowers or you’d have a wedding dress with hopes that your hypothetical granddaughter would later wear it.

To buy: $US7,000. To rent: $US1,000. Beaming bride Kristen Juhan, a 29-year-old law student, rented this stunner for her wedding last July in Beverly Hills. Photo: Adrienne Gunde.Source:New York Post

“Now it’s more about the experience, and brides expressing their style and making sure their relationship is showcased. And with Pinterest, doing a wedding on a budget is chic now.”

At Borrowing Magnolia, brides can order three dresses to try on for a $US99 ($AU105) fee. If the bride decides to rent or buy one of the dresses, the $99 goes toward the cost.

For rentals, which range from $US400 ($AU426) to $US1,920 ($AU2047), the dress is sent to the bride 10 days before the wedding and must be returned within four days of the event.

Alterations are allowed on a case-by-case basis and need to be reversible.

“It’s brilliant, and I think the concept is going to blow up,” says Kristen Juhan, a newlywed who rented a $US7,000 ($AU7460) strapless lace gown with a 4-foot train for her nuptials last July for just under $US1,000 ($AU1066) from One Night Affair.

The 29-year-old law student married her husband last year at his uncle’s Beverly Hills home, a venue not commensurate with her budget.

“My husband is in medical school. I am in law school, so money was tight, but we wanted nice things. We didn’t have the budget to accommodate the Beverly Hills wedding,” says Ms Juhan.

“Being able to rent a dress was a really great way to work with the budget we had. It was important for me to have a nice dress, but not important for me to hold on to it.”

Long Beach, California, bride Calli Verducci also went to One Night Affair and (temporarily) took home an $US8,000 ($AU8520) feather-and-tulle gown for $US1,200 ($AU1280).

“I had never thought about renting a dress until my wedding co-ordinator suggested it. I was obviously working with a budget and knew I was never going to wear it again.”

The wedding rental business is booming in America, with brides choosing to spend big on other aspects of their wedding.Source:Supplied

Verducci, who got married in March, says she wasn’t worried about not having a white gown to pass on to a future daughter.

“I have a lot of family things I could pass down. Nowadays, people aren’t going the traditional route. I was just thinking that the money could have been used somewhere else. And I don’t know how they did it, but it fit me perfectly.”

But, despite shifting priorities, many brides still bristle at the thought of renting a dress on their big day.

Upper East Sider Elissa Emden, who married her husband, David, in a June 2011 “dream wedding” at New York City’s iconic Plaza Hotel, has her gown preserved at her parents’ home.

“The dress was one of the top priorities to me,” says Ms Emden, who wore a corsetted gown with tiers of flower appliqués by designer Monique Lhuillier.

Ms Emden declined to say how much she’d spent on the dress, but Lhuillier’s bridal gowns can cost upward of $10,000.

For her, it was money well spent. She just had a baby and plans on pulling the dress out of the closet when she loses the baby weight.

“Next year, I am going to try it on again,” Ms Emden says. “And I am sure I will get goose bumps again.”